Mobile Networks | Direct Marketing Observations

As was previously stated in earlier entries, something had to give in the wonderfully bloated world of social networks. It actually has been in play for awhile but, lo and behold, mobile carriers are realizing that the next big thing for their continued world dominance will be the melding of social networks with mobile carriers. Thus the following news doesn’t really surprise me:

MySpace Mobile to be Packaged with Sprint

Fox Interactive Media and Sprint have hooked up to offer MySpace and other FIM properties to mobile customers. Under the deal, MySpace will come as a default option on Sprint’s mobile portal, meaning that the site can be accessed directly as opposed to typing in a URL (in this case, mobile.myspace.com).

Currently in beta, MySpace Mobile will launch officially early next year. Other FIM properties included in the deal are IGN, FOXSports, Photobucket, Rotten Tomattoes, and AskMen.

Why is this important? Because the users of social networks use something even more frequently than their respective social network. Namely, their cell phone. So the thinking is; If you can pair the 2 digital beasts, then you have a match made in marketing heaven. A captive audience 24/7/365. Now this comes on the heels of the announcement in October that:

O2 Partners with MySpace and Facebook for Mobile access in the UK

O2, the UK mobile operator, announced partnerships with MySpace and Facebook, giving its users access to these social networks from their mobile devices.

This partnership provides MySpace and Facebook users, access to their profiles pages for viewing and editing via their cell phone or hand held device. Granting mobile access to the major social networks is another way in which consumers, especially in the teen and college demographic can stay engaged with not only their social groups but also with advertisers and marketers. Virgin, Nokia and Sprint have all gone this route as well. O2 already has a deal with Apple for exclusive sales of the iPhone in the UK.

And this comes in from the vapor trail of a July announcement in which:

Sprint Nextel had announced two new services which enabled users to access social networking sites, and let customers locate each other using GPS technology.

Providing better browsing options for access to social networking sites such as Xanga, Rabble and LiveJournal meant that users would now have more reason to use mobile browsing and stay better connected with friends. Partnering with Loopt, Sprint Nextel is also allowing users to geo-locate one another via GPS, within another private network of friends.

The only sticking point with all of these announcements is that there is still the speed issue that all of the carriers and the respective social networks seem to be ignoring. Granted the iphone seems to have all the speed you need with their Safari browser, but not everyone can go out and afford an iphone. Having said that, what is the 15-18 year old supposed to do with the free phone their parents got them that can only text 50 times a month, supposed to do?

It’s too soon to tell, but don’t think that we’re the only ones who have mentioned it, or have thought about it. The bottom line is this: That the social networks know that a key to their survival will be extending the social network beyond the confines of the home/bedroom. Until they do that, like I said, They’ll all eventually end up standing around staring at each other saying, “Now what?”

As mobile networks and devices continue to evolve and converge into all things digitally possible, doesn’t it make sense that the next big thing should be a social network that is solely dedicated to a mobile network?

It was a matter of time before social networks were destined to leave the confines of the pc. But with the advent of powerful new mobile devices, the ability to to send round-the-clock updates about what you’re eating, who you’re talking to, and what you just bought seemed inevitable. And of course, why not? These things are important in the fabric of our every day lives. We need to know these things.

Jaiku is one of the many sites that is now geared towards mobile social networks. What might make Jaiku formidable is that it is owned by Google. So it probably has a better than average chance at success.

Jaiku’s main goal is to bring people closer together by enabling them to share their activity streams. An activity stream is a log of everyday things as they happen: your status messages, recommendations, events you’re attending, photos you’ve taken – anything you post directly to Jaiku or add using Web feeds. Perhaps one of the most popular right now is Twitter, which allows users to let people broadcast short text messages from their phones and computers to those of friends and strangers. The gist of these networks is to offer a way to connect with the people you care about by sharing your activities with them via the Web, IM, and SMS – as well as through a slew of cool third-party applications built by other developers using propriatary API’s.

Another one that seems more geared towards a younger demo is Kyte. the difference is Kyte allows anybody to create their own interactive TV channel on their website, blog, social network or mobile phone

With kyte, you create your own live TV shows and broadcast them on your own interactive channel, on your website, blog, social network or mobile phone. You can share your kyte channel with your friends and collaborate with them so that they can also be a part of your shows, by adding their own content, by voting and by chatting live with other viewers. With kyte, you can share your experiences live with the world and be the star, director and producer of your own live TV channel, wherever you are and however you want.

At this point we need to coin a new phrase, “digital voyeuristic exhibitionism”. Where do you think we are headed as social networks converge with all things electronic and media related? Is any aspect of our personal lives off limits now with the broad acceptance of reality based programming? Where do we go from here?